Methods and Systems for Codeword to Layer Mapping

ABSTRACT

In a transmitter or transceiver, codewords from HARQ processes can be mapped or assigned to various layers for transmission and/or retransmission of information on a radio channel. Exemplary embodiments provide for various mappings which facilitate, for example, HARQ processes. For example, a codeword can be mapped onto a plurality of layers which are equal in number to a channel rank of a radio channel to be used for the transmission.

RELATED APPLICATION

This application is related to, and claims priority from, Swedish PatentApplication No. 0700368-4, filed on Feb. 14, 2007, the disclosure ofwhich is incorporated here by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention generally relates to radio communication systems,devices, software and methods and, more particularly, to mechanisms andtechniques for codeword to layer mapping associated therewith.

BACKGROUND

At its inception radio telephony was designed, and used for, voicecommunications. As the consumer electronics industry continued tomature, and the capabilities of processors increased, more devicesbecame available for use that allowed the wireless transfer of databetween devices and more applications became available that operatedbased on such transferred data. Of particular note are the Internet andlocal area networks (LANs). These two innovations allowed multiple usersand multiple devices to communicate and exchange data between differentdevices and device types. With the advent of these devices andcapabilities, users (both business and residential) found the need totransmit data, as well as voice, from mobile locations.

The infrastructure and networks which support this voice and datatransfer have likewise evolved. Limited data applications, such as textmessaging, were introduced into the so-called “2G” systems, such as theGlobal System for Mobile (GSM) communications. Packet data over radiocommunication systems became more usable in GSM with the addition of theGeneral Packet Radio Services (GPRS). 3G systems and, then, even higherbandwidth radio communications introduced by Universal Terrestrial RadioAccess (UTRA) standards made applications like surfing the web moreeasily accessible to millions of users (and with more tolerable delay).

Even as new network designs are rolled out by network manufacturers,future systems which provide greater data throughputs to end userdevices are under discussion and development. For example, the so-called3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) standardization project is intended toprovide a technical basis for radiocommunications in the decades tocome. Among other things of note with regard to LTE systems is that theywill provide for downlink communications (i.e., the transmissiondirection from the network to the mobile terminal) using orthogonalfrequency division multiplexing (OFDM) as a transmission format and willprovide for uplink communications (i.e., the transmission direction fromthe mobile terminal to the network) using single carrier frequencydivision multiple access (SC-FDMA).

Modern wireless communication systems targeted for packet-basedcommunication often include hybrid ARQ (HARQ) functionality on thephysical layer to achieve robustness against the impairments of theradio channel. LTE and Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA)are two examples of systems in which such functionality is available.The basic idea behind HARQ is to combine forward error correction (FEC)with ARQ by encoding the information containing data block and thenadding error-detection information such as CRC. After reception of thecoded data block, it is decoded and the error-detection mechanism isused to check whether the decoding was successful or not. If the datablock was received without error, an ACK message is sent to thetransmitter indicating successful transmission of the data block andthat the receiver is ready for a new data block. On the other hand, ifthe data block was not decoded correctly, a NACK message is sent meaningthat the receiver expects a retransmission of the same data block.Subsequent to the reception of the retransmission, the receiver maychoose to either decode it independently or utilize some or all previousreceptions of the same data block in the decoding process.

The channel encoded bits originating from the same block of informationbits is typically referred to as a “codeword”. This is also theterminology used in the LTE specifications to describe the outputintended for a particular subframe from a single HARQ process serving aparticular transport block and is the result of processing theinformation bits by performing, for example, turbo encoding, ratematching, interleaving, etc. Another interesting feature of LTE is itssupport for multiple antennas at both the transmit side and the receiveside. In a multiple transmit antenna device or system, the resultingcodewords are then modulated and distributed over the transmit antennasfor transmission. The first modulated codeword may, for example, bemapped to the first two transmit antennas and the second, modulatedcodeword may be mapped to the two remaining transmit antennas in a fourtransmit antenna system.

Precoding is a popular technique used in conjunction with multi-antennatransmission. The basic principle involved in precoding is to mix anddistribute the modulation symbols over the antennas while potentiallyalso taking the current channel conditions into account. Precoding canbe implemented by, for example, multiplying the information carryingsymbol vector containing modulation symbols by a matrix which isselected to match the channel. Sequences of symbol vectors thus form aset of parallel symbol streams and each such symbol stream is typicallyreferred to as a “layer”. Thus, depending on the choice of precoder in aparticular implementation, a layer may directly correspond to a certainantenna or a layer may, via the precoder mapping, be distributed ontoseveral antennas (also known as antenna ports). The mechanism by whichcodewords are assigned to particular layers in such systems is referredto as “mapping” or, more specifically, as “codeword to layer mapping”.

In a multi-antenna system (often referred to as a MIMO system), it maybe useful to transmit data from several HARQ processes at once, whichoverall process is also known as multi-codeword transmission. Since thecodewords are mapped to layers, the process may alternatively bereferred to as multi-layer transmission. Depending on the radio channelconditions, this process can substantially increase the data rates,since in favorable conditions the radio channel can roughly support asmany layers as the minimum of the number of transmit and receiveantennas. This means that the channel can at most support thesimultaneous transmission of a certain number of codewords, and thatparticular number in turn depends on the codeword to layer mapping. Inthe simplest case, each codeword maps to a single layer and then thenumber of supportable layers obviously equals the number of supportablecodewords. One of the most significant characteristics associated withthe channel conditions in the field of high rate, multi-antennatransmission is the so-called channel rank. The channel rank can varyfrom one up to the minimum number of transmit and receive antennas.Taking a 4×2 system as an example, i.e., a system or device with fourtransmit antennas and two receive antennas, the maximum channel rank istwo. The channel rank varies in time as the fast fading alters thechannel coefficients. Roughly speaking, the channel rank also determineshow many layers, and ultimately also how many codewords, can besuccessfully transmitted simultaneously. Hence, if for example thechannel rank is one at the instant of transmission of two codewordswhich are mapped to two separate layers, then there is a stronglikelihood that the two signals corresponding to the codewords willinterfere so much that both of the codewords will be erroneouslydetected at the receiver. The number of layers per channel use (in e.g.LTE a channel use would correspond to a single resource element) thatare simultaneously transmitted is sometimes referred to as thetransmission rank. With pure spatial precoding schemes such as thespatial multiplexing mode in LTE, the transmission rank equals thenumber of layers.

In conjunction with preceding, adapting the transmission to the channelrank involves using as many layers as the channel rank. In the simplestof cases, each layer would correspond to a particular antenna. Taking,purely as an example, the current the four transmit antenna case in LTEsystems, the maximum number of codewords is limited to two while up tofour layers can be transmitted. For devices or systems which have onlytwo transmit antennas, the mapping is relatively straightforward sincethe number of layers equals the number of codewords. However, fordevices and systems having, for example, four or more transmit antennas,there are potentially fewer codewords than layers, so the codewords needto then be mapped to the layers in some predetermined way. The issuethen arises regarding how to map the codewords to the layers. Variousconventional mappings from codewords to layers have been proposed andwill be described in more detail below. Although these conventionalmappings work well when considering, for example, first timetransmission performance, they may not be optimal under othercircumstances, e.g., when considering the efficiency of HARQ operationfor retransmissions.

Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide other codeword to layermappings for systems, methods, devices and software which avoid theafore-described problems and drawbacks.

SUMMARY

According to an exemplary embodiment, a method for transmitting aninformation signal on a radio channel using hybrid automaticretransmission request (HARQ) codewords includes generating codewords,one for each HARQ process available for simultaneous transmission,mapping the codewords onto a first plurality of layers to generate theinformation signal having a first transmission rank, initiallytransmitting the information signal on the radio channel, andsubsequently retransmitting, with a second transmission rank on theradio channel, using one of the HARQ processes by generating one of thecodewords mapped to a second plurality of layers.

According to another exemplary embodiment, a transmitter fortransmitting an information signal on a radio channel using hybridautomatic retransmission request (HARQ) codewords includes a pluralityof transmit antennas, a processor for generating codewords, one for eachHARQ process available for simultaneous transmission and for mapping thecodewords onto a first plurality of layers to generate the informationsignal having a first transmission rank, a transmit chain of elementsfor transmitting the information signal, further wherein the processorsubsequently maps one of the two codewords onto a second plurality oflayers and the transmit chain of elements retransmits the one of the twocodewords on the radio channel.

According to another exemplary embodiment, a method for receiving aninformation signal which was transmitted using hybrid automaticretransmission request (HARQ) codewords includes receiving theinformation signal, determining a first mapping between the codewordsand a first plurality of layers used to generate the information signalhaving a first transmission rank, decoding the information signal usingknowledge of the first mapping, receiving retransmission of at leastpart of the information signal having a second transmission rank,determining a second mapping between at least one of the codewords and asecond plurality of layers, and decoding the at least part of theretransmitted information signal using knowledge of the second mapping.

According to still another exemplary embodiment, a receiver forreceiving an information signal on a radio channel which was transmittedusing hybrid automatic retransmission request (HARQ) codewords includesat least one receive antenna for receiving said information signal, areceive chain of elements connected to the at least one receive antennafor processing the information signal, and a processor for determining afirst mapping between the codewords and a first plurality of layers usedto generate the information signal having a first transmission rank anddecoding the information signal using knowledge of said first mapping,wherein the at least one receive antenna subsequently receives aretransmission of at least part of the information signal having asecond transmission rank and the processor determines a second mappingbetween at least one of the codewords and a second plurality of layersand decodes the at least part of the retransmitted information signalusing knowledge of the second mapping.

According to still another exemplary embodiment, a method fortransmitting an information signal on a radio channel using hybridautomatic retransmission request (HARQ) codewords includes generating anHARQ codeword, mapping the HARQ codeword onto a plurality of layersbased on a channel rank of the radio channel to generate the informationsignal, wherein the channel rank is greater than one and the pluralityof layers is equal to the channel rank, and transmitting the informationsignal on the radio channel.

According to another exemplary embodiment, a transmitter fortransmitting an information signal on a radio channel using hybridautomatic retransmission request (HARQ) codewords includes a pluralityof transmit antennas, a processor for generating an HARQ codeword andmapping the HARQ codeword onto a plurality of layers based on a channelrank of the radio channel to generate the information signal, whereinthe channel rank is greater than one and the plurality of layers isequal to the channel rank, and a transmit chain of elements fortransmitting the information signal.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute apart of the specification, illustrate one or more embodiments and,together with the description, explain these embodiments. In thedrawings:

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary LTE access network in which exemplaryembodiments can be implemented;

FIG. 2 depicts exemplary LTE physical layer information signalprocessing with which exemplary embodiments can be associated;

FIG. 3 shows an example of an antenna mapping function in more detail;

FIGS. 4( a)-4(d) illustrate a first conventional set of codeword tolayer mappings;

FIGS. 5( a)-5(d) illustrate a second conventional set of codeword tolayer mappings;

FIGS. 6( a) and 6(b) illustrate codeword to layer mappings according toexemplary embodiments;

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of an exemplary transmitting device in whichcodeword to layer mappings according to these exemplary embodiments canbe implemented;

FIGS. 8 and 9 are flowcharts illustrating methods of transmittingaccording to exemplary embodiments;

FIG. 10 is a block diagram of an exemplary receiving device in whichknowledge of codeword to layer mappings according to these exemplaryembodiments is used; and

FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating a method of receiving according toan exemplary embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following description of the exemplary embodiments of the presentinvention refers to the accompanying drawings. The same referencenumbers in different drawings identify the same or similar elements. Thefollowing detailed description does not limit the invention. Instead,the scope of the invention is defined by the appended claims.

To provide some context for the more detailed discussion of codeword tolayer mappings according to these exemplary embodiments, consider firstthe exemplary radiocommunication system illustrated in FIGS. 1-3.Beginning with the radio access network nodes and interfaces in FIG. 1,it will be seen that this particular example is provided in the contextof LTE systems. Nonetheless, the present invention is not limited in itsapplicability to transmitters or transmissions associated with LTEsystems and can instead be used in any system wherein multiple transmitantennas are employed, including, but not limited to Wideband CodeDivision Multiple Access (WCDMA), GSM, UTRA, E-UTRA, High Speed PacketAccess (HSPA), UMB, WiMaX and other, systems, devices and methods.Since, however, the example in FIG. 1 is provided in terms of LTE, thenetwork node which transmits and receives over the air interface istermed an eNodeB, several of which eNodeBs 200 are illustrated therein.

In the context of the air interface, each eNodeB 200 is responsible fortransmitting signals toward, and receiving signals from, one or morecells 202. Each eNodeB includes multiple antennas, e.g., 2, 4, or moretransmit antennas, as well as potentially multiple receive antennas,e.g., 2, 4, or more receive antennas, and handles functions including,but not limited to coding, decoding, modulation, demodulation,interleaving, de-interleaving, etc., with respect to the physical layerof such signals. Note that, as used herein, the phrase “transmitantennas” is specifically meant to include, and be generic to, physicalantennas, virtual antennas and antenna ports. The eNodeBs 200 are alsoresponsible for many higher functions associated with handlingcommunications in the system including, for example, scheduling users,handover decisions, and the like. The interested reader who desires moreinformation regarding transmit or receive functions associated with LTEor other systems in which these exemplary embodiments may be deployed isdirected toward the book entitled “3G Evolution—HSPA and LTE for MobileBroadband”, to Erik Dahlman et al., published by Elsevier Ltd., 2007,the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference.

Nonetheless, to briefly discuss the baseband processing associated withthe transmission of signals in the downlink (i.e., possibly transferredthrough the core network 203 to an eNodeB 200 and then into the cells202 toward target mobile terminal or stations, e.g., MS 204 in FIG. 1),consider FIG. 2. Therein, two transport blocks of data 300 are beingprocessed for transmission by an eNodeB 200 using spatial multiplexing.Cyclic redundancy check (CRC) bits are inserted at steps 302 to be usedby the receiver to detect errors. Channel coding is applied to thetransport blocks at steps 304 to provide protection to the payload dataagainst the impairments presented by the radio channel. The hybridautomatic retransmission request (HARQ) steps 306 operate to extract orrepeat code bits from the blocks of code bits provided by the channelencoder to generate a precise set of bits to be transmitted within atransmit time interval (TTI), e.g., based upon various criteria such asthe number of assigned resource blocks, the selected modulation schemeand the spatial multiplexing order. This means that not necessarily thesame coded bits are produced from the HARQ steps 306 for eachtransmission attempt of the same transport block of information bits.The signals corresponding to a TTI are in LTE transmitted over aso-called subframe which spans 1 ms.

At step 308, the code words output from the HARQ block are scrambled(multiplied) by a bit-level scrambling sequence or mask, which aids thereceive in suppressing interference to the radio signal. The selecteddata modulation, e.g., Quadrature Phase-Shift Keying (QPSK), 16Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM), or 64 QAM, is then applied atstep 310 to transform blocks of scrambled bits into corresponding blocksof modulation symbols. These modulation symbols are then mapped todifferent antennas and/or different antenna ports at step 312. In LTEnomenclature, an antenna port corresponds to the transmission of aparticular downlink reference signal which may, or may not, correspondto an actual, physical antenna. The symbols to be transmitted on eachantenna (1-n in FIG. 2, e.g., 2, 4, 8, 16) are then mapped to respectiveresource blocks 314 and sent off for OFDM processing (not shown) priorto transmission by the eNodeB 200.

Of particular interest in the transmit processing for these exemplaryembodiments is the antenna mapping step/block 312. The antenna mappingprocess can be further subdivided into mapping of the codewords outputfrom the modulation block 310 into layers and precoding of the resultingsymbol vectors to generate the antenna (or antenna port) mapped symbols,as shown in FIG. 3. Therein an example is provided with two sets ofcodewords being mapped by layer mapping function 400 into three layers.Two symbol vectors v1 and v2 associated with the three layers areillustrated in FIG. 3. These symbol vectors are then precoded byapplying one or more precoding matrices by precoding function 402, i.e.,by matrix multiplication of the precoding matrix or matrices with theincoming symbol vectors. A detailed description of precoding is beyondthe scope of this discussion. However, it will be appreciated that theillustration of mapping to three layers and four transmit antennas inFIG. 3 is purely exemplary, and that these exemplary embodiments areapplicable to other numbers of layers and/or transmit antennas.Selection of the number of layers will (i.e., the transmission rank), asdescribed earlier, typically vary based upon the channel rank (amongpossibly other criteria) and the number of antennas may vary from systemto system or even among transmit devices within systems.

For any given system, device or implementation, there will typically bea fixed number of transmit antennas and, therefore, one or morepredetermined mappings between codewords and layers will typically beavailable for use in performing the codeword to layer mappingillustrated in, e.g., FIG. 3. This mapping can change during operationof a particular transmitter or device as a function of the determinedchannel rank, i.e., codewords can be mapped to more or fewer layersduring transmission to another device. Some conventional sets ofcodeword to layer mappings for systems or devices with four transmitantennas are illustrated in FIGS. 4 and 5. For example, FIGS. 4( a)-4(d)depict a first set of conventional codeword to layer mappings. Startingwith FIG. 4( a), if for example, the channel conditions are determinedto correspond to a transmission rank 1 characteristic, then a singlecodeword 500 is mapped to a single layer 502. The layer 502 is input toa precoder 504, which precodes the symbols and distributes them acrossthe four transmit antennas 506-512.

For a rank 2 channel, transmission rank 2 is suitable and the codewordto layer mapping can be performed, for example, as shown in FIG. 4( b).Therein, two codewords 514 and 516 are mapped to two layers 518 and 520,respectively. These two layers 518 and 520 provide their respectivesymbol streams to the precoder 504, which in turn precodes the symbolsand distributes them among the four transmit antennas 506-512. For arank 3 channel, transmission rank 3 may be used, which is illustrated inFIG. 4( c) where a first codeword 522 is mapped to one layer 523, whilea second codeword 524 is mapped to two layers 526 and 528 using aserial-to-parallel (S/P) converter 530. The three resulting layers arethen precoded and their symbols distributed among the four transmitantennas 506-512. For a rank 4 channel, a transmitter can use thecodeword to layer mapping illustrated in FIG. 4( d). Therein, twocodewords 532 and 534 are each mapped into two different layers, i.e.,layers 536 and 538 for codeword 532 and layers 540 and 542 for codeword534 via S/P converters 544 and 546, respectively. The resulting fourlayers are then precoded by unit 504 and their symbols distributed amongthe four transmit antennas 506-512.

Another conventional codeword to layer mapping set is illustrated inFIGS. 5( a)-5(d). Therein, the mappings of codewords to layers for ranks1-3, illustrated in FIGS. 5( a)-5(c) is the same as that described abovefor the previous, conventional mapping set in FIGS. 4( a)-4(c) and are,therefore, not further described here. However the mapping for a rank 4channel characteristic is different. Instead of mapping the twocodewords each to two different layers (as shown in FIG. 4( d)), thisconventional mapping set maps a first codeword 600 to one layer 604 andthe second codeword 602 to three different layers 606, 607 and 608 viaan S/P unit 610. The resulting layers are then precoded via unit 504 andtheir symbols are distributed across the four transmit antennas 506-512.This particular mapping has been claimed to be beneficial for increasingthe accuracy of the channel quality reporting from the receiver whencertain advanced types of receiver employing successive interferencecancellation techniques are employed.

The conventional codeword to layer mappings described above with respectto FIGS. 4( a)-5(d) work well and incur a relatively small performanceloss compared to all possible mappings if only first time transmissionperformance is considered. However, if retransmissions e.g., as part ofthe above-described HARQ processing, are taken into account, then othermappings may be desirable. For example, suppose that at a particulartime, a transmitter/transceiver determines that the radio channel onwhich it is transmitting information has a channel rank of four. Thetransmitter/transceiver then uses, for example, the conventional mappingdepicted in FIG. 4( d) for the initial/first transmission of a block ofdata, and hence two codewords are mapped onto four layers as shown inFIG. 4( d). Further, suppose that subsequently one or both of thetransmitted codewords are not detected correctly at the receiver, inwhich case the transmitter is requested to resend the informationcontained in these two codewords. However, by the time of theretransmission of these codewords, the channel has changed its rank,e.g., from rank four to rank two, making it typically impossible tosuccessfully simultaneously convey two codewords mapped to four layers.There is thus a need for the transmitter to reduce the transmission rank(i.e., to reduce the number of layers used for transmission) and to onlytransmit symbols from a single codeword at a time. Given, the set ofconventional codeword to layer mappings shown in FIGS. 4( a)-4(d),however, in order to use only two layers, two codewords must be used,i.e., as shown in FIG. 4( b).

It is thus not possible, using the conventional, predetermined mappingset provided in FIGS. 4( a)-4(d), to use two layers for transmissionwhen only symbols from a single codeword need to be transmitted. Thus,the transmitter would have to retransmit the codeword using only asingle layer. A similar problem exists with respect to the conventionalmapping set illustrated in FIGS. 5( a)-5(d). This, in turn, precludeschase combining at the receive side and also means that retransmissionsare limited to half as many coded bits as the original transmission. Forfirst transmissions with high coding rates, this can represent asubstantial loss of coding gain.

The problem described above with respect to the conventional codeword tolayer mappings of FIGS. 4( a)-5(d) may have a serious impact on theefficiency of HARQ operation. For example, using these conventionalmappings for retransmission, either the transmitter keeps all four ofthe original layers and accurate reception of the retransmitted data islikely to fail due to poorer channel conditions, or a single codeword ata time is transmitted using only a single layer. However, in the lattercase it is likely that the coded, rate-matched and interleaved bits inthe HARQ buffer do not fit when fewer layers are available. Thus, atbest, the rate-matching and interleaving may need to be repeated, but atworst the underlying number of information bits does not fit when fewerlayers have to be used, or at least the code rate becomes excessivelyhigh. Similar problems arise if one of the HARQ processes is terminatedearlier than the other one and the channel rank then drops to one.

A solution to this problem according to exemplary embodiments is toprovide additional or alternative codeword to layer mappings whichenable a transmitter/transceiver to be able to reduce the number ofsimultaneously transmitted codewords (or HARQ processes) without beingforced to change the number of layers corresponding to any of theremaining codeword(s) (or HARQ process(es)). Mappings which support thiscapability can be added solely for use in retransmissions or can also beavailable for use by a transmitter in the first time transmission ofdata. For example, when considering the codeword to layer mappings asdepicted in FIGS. 4( a)-4(d), moving from rank four to rank twotransmissions currently forces each codeword to use one layer each. Toavoid that issue, one or more additional mappings involving a singlecodeword to two (or more) layers can be provided for different channelranks.

One such mapping according to an exemplary embodiment is illustrated inFIG. 6( a). Therein, for a rank 2 radio channel, a single codeword 700is mapped to two layers 702 and 704 via S/P unit 706. The resultinglayers have their symbols precoded by unit 708 and then distributedamong the transmit antennas 710-716. The parameter n which furtheridentifies the codeword 700 in FIG. 6( a) denotes the codeword numberand is set to either one or two, e.g., if the mapping of FIG. 6( a) isused by a transmitter to retransmit a codeword 2 which was originallytransmitted using the mapping of, e.g., FIG. 4( d), then n would equal2. According to another exemplary embodiment, illustrated in FIG. 6( b),a mapping of a single codeword to three layers for a rank 3 radiochannel can also or alternately be provided to a codeword to layermapping set. Therein, a codeword 720 is mapped to three different layers722, 724 and 726 using an S/P unit 728. The resulting three layers areinput to the precoding unit 730, which precodes the symbols anddistributes them among the, in this example, four transmit antennas710-716.

In these codeword to layer mappings according to the exemplaryembodiments, the precoding unit 708, 730 can be responsible for theordering of the layers 702 and 704 or 722, 724 and 726, respectively.Thus, different layer orderings are not explicitly referenced in FIGS.6( a) and 6(b) although it would be straightforward to do so. Also, itwill be apparent that, for retransmissions, the codeword number canchange for any given mapping. The exemplary mappings illustrated inFIGS. 6( a) and 6(b) can be used as part of the either of the mappingsets illustrated in FIGS. 4( a)-5(d) either individually or together toextend those mapping sets or they can be used with other mapping sets.

Adding additional mappings to existing mapping sets may, in turn, imposea need to signal the receiver regarding which mapping is being used by atransmitter for a given codeword or data block. In LTE, the receiver(UE) will, e.g., based on channel measurements, recommend a certaintransmission rank and precoder to the eNodeB. For transmission rankswhere there is only one possible mapping, the recommendation of atransmission rank by the receiver implicitly determines the codeword tolayer mapping. An alternative is that the UE would explicitly recommenda codeword to layer mapping from which the transmission rank isimplicitly derived, e.g., by signaling such a recommendation to theeNodeB. The eNodeB may choose to follow the transmission rankrecommendation or override it. In any case, the eNodeB can signal, i.e.,in the downlink to the UE, which mapping/transmission rank is used totransmit thereto. There are several alternatives which can be used tosignal what specific mapping should be used and in particular how to addthe extended mappings. The signaling should preferably be consideredjointly together with, for example, the signaling of the precoding indexand would in LTE probably be placed on the physical downlink controlchannel (PDCCH). In any case, one exemplary way of adding support forthe additional mappings is to let the transport format size field in thePDCCH, which describes the number of information bits in a codeword, beset to zero when that codeword should remain unused such that thecorresponding layers are not transmitted.

As mentioned above, the transmit processing techniques described hereinmay be used for various communication systems such as Code DivisionMultiple Access (CDMA) systems, Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA)systems, Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) systems, OrthogonalFDMA (OFDMA) systems, Single-Carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA) systems, etc. Thetransmitter/transceiver may, for example, be disposed within a radiobase station, NodeB, eNodeB, or the like, to transmit informationsignals on a downlink radio channel. Alternatively, the transmitter may,for example, be disposed in a mobile unit, terminal device, userequipment, or the like to transmit information signals on an uplinkradio channel. Regardless of the particular type of communication systemin which these exemplary embodiments are presented, the transmit devicewill typically include the components illustrated generally in FIG. 7.

Therein, the transmitter includes a plurality of physical transmitantennas 802 in this example numbering four, although more or fewer thanfour transmit antennas can be used. The physical transmit antennas 802are connected to a processor 806 via transmit (TX) chain elements 804which can include one or more of filters, power amplifiers and the like,as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art. Processor(s) 806, inconjunction with memory device(s) 808 (and potentially other devices notshown) can operate to perform the transmit processes discussed abovewith respect to FIGS. 1-3, e.g., by way of software stored therein,additional hardware or some combination of software and hardware. Thus,the codeword to layer mapping functionality described above can, forexample, be performed in software by executing computer-readableinstructions from memory device 808 to perform, e.g., the mappingsdescribed above with respect to FIGS. 6( a) and 6(b). Thus, it will beapparent that exemplary embodiments also relate to software, e.g.,program code or instructions which are stored on a computer-readablemedium and which, when read by a computer, processor or the like,perform certain steps associated with transmitting information signalswhose HARQ codewords are mapped to layers in the manner described above.Examples of such steps are illustrated in the flowcharts of FIGS. 8 and9.

A method of transmitting an information signal, including retransmissionof, e.g., an erroneously received codeword, according to an exemplaryembodiment is illustrated in FIG. 8. Therein, at step 900, codewords aregenerated, i.e., one from each of the, e.g., two, HARQ processes. Thecodewords are mapped onto a first plurality of layers corresponding to afirst transmission rank, i.e., the number of layers equals thetransmission rank, based on, e.g., the channel rank perceived by thetransmitter at the time of first transmission of this data, at step 902to generate an information signal. The information signal is thentransmitted on the radio channel at step 904. Subsequently, at step 906,one of the HARQ processes is ordered to retransmit, and a correspondingcodeword is produced and retransmitted, e.g., due to erroneous receptionby a receiver of the first transmission of a codeword associated to theHARQ process being ordered to retransmit. The codeword to beretransmitted is mapped onto a second plurality of layers andtransmitted at a second transmission rank, e.g., associated with thechannel conditions perceived by the transmitter at the time of theretransmission.

A method of transmitting an information signal, which may or may notinclude retransmission, according to an exemplary embodiment isillustrated in FIG. 9. Therein, at step 1000, a codeword out of a HARQprocess is generated. This codeword is mapped, at step 1002, onto aplurality of layers corresponding to a transmission rank, e.g. based ona channel rank of the radio channel, to generate the information signal,wherein the transmission rank is greater than one and the number oflayers is equal to the transmission rank. The resulting informationsignal is then transmitted at step 1004.

As mentioned above, it is contemplated that receivers of signalsprocessed for transmission as described above will need to consider theparticular codeword to layer mapping used for transmission in order todecode the received signal. Thus, an exemplary receiver 1000 forreceiving and processing information signals which have been codeword tolayer mapped as described above is illustrated in FIG. 10. Therein, one(or more) receive antennas 1002 receive the information signals whichhave been codeword to layer mapped during transmit side processing.After passing through one or more receive (RX) chain processing elements1004 (e.g., filters, amplifiers or the like), processor(s) 1006 willprocess the received information signals to extract the informationcontained therein, e.g., in conjunction with processing software storedon memory device(s) 1008, by using its knowledge of the codeword tolayer mapping performed on those information signals.

For example, as shown in the flowchart of FIG. 11, a method forreceiving an information signal which was transmitted using hybridautomatic retransmission request (HARQ) codewords can include the stepsof receiving the information signal 1100 and determining a first mappingbetween the codewords and a first plurality of layers that was used togenerate the information signal having a first transmission rank (step1102). Using this mapping knowledge, the receiver can then decode thereceived information at step 11104. A retransmission of at least part ofthe information signal, at a second transmission rank, then occurs atstep 1106. The receiver can then determine a second mapping between atleast one of the codewords and a second plurality of layers (step 1108)and use that knowledge to decode the retransmitted information signal atstep 1110.

The foregoing description of exemplary embodiments provides illustrationand description, but it is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit theinvention to the precise form disclosed. Modifications and variationsare possible in light of the above teachings or may be acquired frompractice of the invention. The following claims and their equivalentsdefine the scope of the invention.

1. A method for transmitting an information signal on a radio channelusing hybrid automatic retransmission request (HARQ) codewordscomprising: generating codewords, one for each HARQ process availablefor simultaneous transmission; mapping said codewords onto a firstplurality of layers to generate said information signal having a firsttransmission rank; initially transmitting said information signal onsaid radio channel; and subsequently retransmitting, with a secondtransmission rank on said radio channel, using one of said HARQprocesses by generating one of said codewords mapped to a secondplurality of layers.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one ofsaid codewords is, in said mapping of said codewords onto said firstplurality of layers, mapped to at least two layers.
 3. The method ofclaim 2, wherein said retransmission of said one of said codewords usesa same number of layers as used in the first transmission of said one ofsaid codewords.
 4. The method of claim 3, wherein said second pluralityof layers corresponds to as many layers as said second transmissionrank.
 5. The method of claim 4, wherein said second transmission rankduring said retransmission of said one of said codewords is at leasttwo.
 6. The method of claim 5, wherein said second transmission rankduring said retransmission of said one of said codewords is equal totwo.
 7. The method of claim 6, wherein said first transmission rank isfour.
 8. The method of claim 6, wherein said first transmission rank isthree.
 9. The method according to claim 5, wherein there are two HARQprocesses available for said simultaneous transmission.
 10. The methodaccording to claim 1, wherein said second transmission rank during saidretransmission is determined based on a channel rank of said radiochannel.
 11. The method according to claim 1, wherein each of saidcodewords comprise a plurality of channel encoded bits originating froma block of information bits.
 12. The method according to claim 1,wherein said first plurality of layers are symbol streams which areinput in parallel to a precoder to generate said information signal. 13.The method of claim 12, further comprising: distributing symbolsassociated with said information signal across a plurality of transmitantennas for transmission.
 14. The method of claim 13, wherein saidnumber of transmit antennas is four.
 15. A transmitter for transmittingan information signal on a radio channel using hybrid automaticretransmission request (HARQ) codewords comprising: a plurality oftransmit antennas; a processor for generating codewords, one for eachHARQ process available for simultaneous transmission and for mappingsaid codewords onto a first plurality of layers to generate saidinformation signal having a first transmission rank; a transmit chain ofelements for transmitting said information signal, further wherein saidprocessor subsequently maps one of said two codewords onto a secondplurality of layers and said transmit chain of elements retransmits saidone of said two codewords on said radio channel.
 16. The transmitter ofclaim 15, wherein at least one of said codewords is, in said mapping ofsaid codewords onto said first plurality of layers, mapped to at leasttwo layers.
 17. The transmitter of claim 16, wherein said retransmissionof said one of said codewords uses a same number of layers as used inthe first transmission of said one of said codewords.
 18. Thetransmitter of claim 17, wherein said second plurality of layerscorresponds to as many layers as said second transmission rank.
 19. Thetransmitter of claim 18, wherein said second transmission rank duringsaid retransmission of said one of said codewords is at least two. 20.The transmitter of claim 19, wherein said second transmission rankduring said retransmission of said one of said codewords is equal totwo.
 21. The transmitter of claim 20, wherein said first transmissionrank is four.
 22. The transmitter of claim 20, wherein said firsttransmission rank is three.
 23. The transmitter according to claim 19,wherein there are two HARQ processes available for said simultaneoustransmission.
 24. The transmitter according to claim 15, wherein saidsecond transmission rank during said retransmission is determined basedon a channel rank of said radio channel.
 25. The transmitter accordingto claim 15, wherein each of said codewords comprise a plurality ofchannel encoded bits originating from a block of information bits. 26.The transmitter according to claim 15, wherein said first plurality oflayers are symbol streams which are input in parallel to a precoder togenerate said information signal.
 27. The transmitter of claim 26,wherein said symbols associated with said information signal aredistributed across said plurality of transmit antennas for transmission.28. The transmitter of claim 27, wherein said number of transmitantennas is four.
 29. A method for receiving an information signal whichwas transmitted using hybrid automatic retransmission request (HARQ)codewords comprising: receiving said information signal; determining afirst mapping between said codewords and a first plurality of layersused to generate said information signal having a first transmissionrank; decoding said information signal using knowledge of said firstmapping; receiving retransmission of at least part of said informationsignal having a second transmission rank; determining a second mappingbetween at least one of said codewords and a second plurality of layers;and decoding said at least part of said retransmitted information signalusing knowledge of said second mapping.
 30. The method of claim 29,wherein at least one of said codewords is, in said mapping of saidcodewords onto said first plurality of layers, mapped to at least twolayers.
 31. The method of claim 30, wherein said retransmission of saidone of said codewords uses a same number of layers as used in the firsttransmission of said one of said codewords.
 32. The method of claim 31,wherein said second plurality of layers corresponds to as many layers assaid second transmission rank.
 33. The method of claim 32, wherein saidsecond transmission rank during said retransmission of said one of saidcodewords is at least two.
 34. The method of claim 33, wherein saidsecond transmission rank during said retransmission of said one of saidcodewords is equal to two.
 35. The method of claim 34, wherein saidfirst transmission rank is four.
 36. The method of claim 34, whereinsaid first transmission rank is three.
 37. The method according to claim33, wherein there are two HARQ processes available for said simultaneoustransmission.
 38. The method according to claim 29, wherein said secondtransmission rank during said retransmission is determined based on achannel rank of said radio channel.
 39. The method according to claim29, wherein each of said codewords comprise a plurality of channelencoded bits originating from a block of information bits.
 40. Themethod according to claim 29, wherein said first plurality of layers aresymbol streams which are input in parallel to a precoder to generatesaid information signal.
 41. A receiver for receiving an informationsignal on a radio channel which was transmitted using hybrid automaticretransmission request (HARQ) codewords comprising: at least one receiveantenna for receiving said information signal; a receive chain ofelements connected to said at least one receive antenna for processingsaid information signal; and a processor for determining a first mappingbetween said codewords and a first plurality of layers used to generatesaid information signal having a first transmission rank, decoding saidinformation signal using knowledge of said first mapping, wherein: saidat least one receive antenna subsequently receives a retransmission ofat least part of said information signal having a second transmissionrank and said processor determines a second mapping between at least oneof said codewords and a second plurality of layers and decodes said atleast part of said retransmitted information signal using knowledge ofsaid second mapping.
 42. The receiver of claim 41, wherein at least oneof said codewords is, in said mapping of said codewords onto said firstplurality of layers, mapped to at least two layers.
 43. The receiver ofclaim 42, wherein said retransmission of said one of said codewords usesa same number of layers as used in the first transmission of said one ofsaid codewords.
 44. The receiver of claim 43, wherein said secondplurality of layers corresponds to as many layers as said secondtransmission rank.
 45. The receiver of claim 44, wherein said secondtransmission rank during said retransmission of said one of saidcodewords is at least two.
 46. The receiver of claim 45, wherein saidsecond transmission rank during said retransmission of said one of saidcodewords is equal to two.
 47. The receiver of claim 46, wherein saidfirst transmission rank is four.
 48. The receiver of claim 46, whereinsaid first transmission rank is three.
 49. The receiver according toclaim 45, wherein there are two HARQ processes available for saidsimultaneous transmission.
 50. The receiver according to claim 41,wherein said second transmission rank during said retransmission isdetermined based on a channel rank of said radio channel.
 51. Thereceiver according to claim 41, wherein each of said codewords comprisea plurality of channel encoded bits originating from a block ofinformation bits.
 52. The receiver according to claim 41, wherein saidfirst plurality of layers are symbol streams which are input in parallelto a precoder to generate said information signal.
 53. A method fortransmitting an information signal on a radio channel using hybridautomatic retransmission request (HARQ) codewords comprising: generatingan HARQ codeword; mapping said HARQ codeword onto a plurality of layersbased on a channel rank of said radio channel to generate saidinformation signal, wherein said channel rank is greater than one andsaid plurality of layers is equal to said channel rank; and transmittingsaid information signal on said radio channel.
 54. A transmitter fortransmitting an information signal on a radio channel using hybridautomatic retransmission request (HARQ) codewords comprising: aplurality of transmit antennas; a processor for generating an HARQcodeword and mapping said HARQ codeword onto a plurality of layers basedon a channel rank of said radio channel to generate said informationsignal, wherein said channel rank is greater than one and said pluralityof layers is equal to said channel rank; and a transmit chain ofelements for transmitting said information signal.